1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sun visor device for an automobile provided with a sunroof in a front portion of a ceiling of a vehicle body.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an automobile has been provided with sun visors for blocking bright sunlight coming from the front at positions near a ceiling in front of a driver seat and a passenger seat.
This sun visor is constructed to be stored along a roof trim covering a ceiling surface so that the sun visor does not cause a hindrance when it is not in use.
Also, some conventional automobiles are provided with an opening called a sunroof in a ceiling portion of vehicle body to enhance comfort in a cabin by introducing much outside light into the cabin (for example, Patent Document 1 (Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 8-192693) and Patent Document 2 (Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 2001-130339)).
The sunroof described in the aforementioned Patent Document 1 is configured so that, as shown in FIG. 5, a sunroof glass is provided in a sunroof (lighting window) a which is open in a ceiling portion and a sunshade trim b is mounted so as to be slidable to the inside of the sun glass, and a room lamp c is provided near the front end in the slide direction of the sunshade trim b. In this configuration, a sun visor d is stored between the front end of a roof trim e and the sunroof a.
Also, the sunroof described in the aforementioned Patent Document 2 is configured so that a particular portion of lighting device assembled under the ceiling of vehicle body is fitted in an opening to be located under the formed ceiling, and the opening of formed ceiling is fitted in a concave portion formed around the particular portion of lighting device to conceal the edge portion of the opening. In this configuration, as the same as described in Patent Document 1, the sun visor is stored between the front end of the roof trim and the sunroof.
However, in the sunroof described in the aforementioned Patent Document 1 or 2, since the opening is provided in a part of the indoor ceiling, there arises a problem of lack of a sense of spaciousness.
To overcome such a problem, in recent years, an automobile in which a sense of spaciousness in the cabin is enhanced by providing the sunroof a in a front end portion of the roof trim e as shown in FIG. 6 has been thought.
The automobile in which the sunroof a is provided in a front end portion of the roof trim e is configured so that an opening f is provided in a front portion of ceiling of vehicle body, and a part of a windshield glass g or a separate auxiliary glass extends to the opening f to cover the opening f. This configuration has an effect that a sense of spaciousness, especially, of the front seat in the cabin is further enhanced because the windshield glass g and the sunroof a are integrated with each other.
However, for the sunroof a in which the opening f is provided in a front portion of ceiling and the opening f is covered by a part of the windshield glass g, a strength member for attaching the sun visor d does not exist, which poses a problem in that the sun visor d cannot be installed.
Also, in the case where a strength member for attaching the sun visor d is provided, for example, near the front end of ceiling and the sun visor d is installed to this strength member, if the sun visor d is stored along the inside of the sunroof a when it is not in use, there arises a problem in that the sunroof a is closed by the sun visor d, whereby a sense of spaciousness is not satisfied.
Further, in the case where it is attempted to use the sun visor d also as a sunshade, if the size of the sun visor d is not almost the same as the opening area of the sunroof a, a gap is produced, so that the function as the sunshade is impaired. Also, when the size of the sun visor d is made almost the same as the opening area of the sunroof a, the sun visor d is too large, so that there is caused a problem of impaired operability and storing property of the sun visor d.
The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and, accordingly, an object thereof is to provide an automotive sun visor device which does not take away a sense of spaciousness of sunroof.